Although the vast majority of modern-day recipes are able to live on in perpetuity thanks to the interminable nature of the Internet, older recipes from generations past have always had to weather the storm of time and attrition to remain intact.
Earlier this week, award-winning food writer Lindsay Anderson launched a new online directory and archive that she hopes will both modernize the age-old act of recipe preservation and inspire global culinary curiosity for years to come.
Anderson describes Generational Fare as a platform dedicated to documenting culinary traditions, paying tribute to the family members who’ve kept them alive, and building a community that celebrates the universal joy of cooking together.
“There’s nothing out there like this,” says Anderson. “Everybody eats, and everybody’s family has a history that can be unearthed through food. A friend of mine always liked the idea of having a place to share his Portuguese grandmother’s massa recipe, but could never find a platform dedicated to exactly that: preserving a diversity of culinary stories through crowd-sourced sharing.”
Some of the dishes that have already been contributed to Generational Fare include a centuries-old recipe for fresh pasta, gem scones from Australia, Persian tachin from a centenarian grandmother, and a recipe from sweet bread that originated in the Portuguese Azores.
“Even I—a person who doesn’t come from a particularly food-centric family—have found this whole process so moving. My mom found a recipe for rhubarb pickle from my great grandmother, a woman I previously had no tangible connection to but now want to learn more about,” Anderson adds.
More information about Generational Fare along with all of its current recipes can be found online.
